By Ezekiel Nabieu
Apolitical readers would agree with me that man cannot live by politics alone but by every subject necessary for wholesome existence.
Christians are observing Lenten season and it is not out of place for us and Muslims who believe in the common prophet Jesus Christ to reflect on the tenets of the season.
More than any other season this is the season when Christians are expected to be in their most solemn moods due to the observance of final events leading to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And what better way to observe it than by forgoing some of our mundane pleasures.
In other words we should be seen to be distancing ourselves from some of the things we enjoy most by prayer and fasting. When the Jews asked Jesus whether he would kill himself because he said where he was going they cannot come he said to them: “you are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.” John 8:23.
In another biblical passage St Paul said in Romans 2 “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your minds that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect”.
Distancing ourselves from society cannot be equated directly with sheer rejection of the prevailing social order. Neither Jesus' teachings nor his example could be forced into so simplistic a pattern.
New Testament texts deal with the matter but I will bring in some others. However, what is perhaps the best early Christian statement comes not out of the New Testament itself but from sources later in history, perhaps during the second century. Even so, all the indications are that this text is a fair representation of the New Testament’s own teaching.
The document is a rare and little noted fragment of an early Christian apology known as The Letter to Diognetus. Very little if anything definite can be said about who wrote it, when, where and how.
It is being used not so much as the thought of a particular author but more as an almost accidental peek into the culture of the early Christians and their practice of simplicity. Here goes: “Christians are not different from the rest of men in nationality, speech or customs; they do not live in states of their own, nor do they use a special language, nor adopt a peculiar way of life...whether fortune has given them a home in a Greek or foreign city they follow local custom in the matter of dress, food and the way of life; yet the character of the culture they reveal is marvellous and, it must be admitted unusual.
They live, each in his native land - but as if they were not at home there. They share in all duties like citizens and suffer all hardships like strangers. Every foreign land is for them a fatherland and every fatherland a foreign land.
They marry like the rest of men and beget children, but they do not abandon the babies that are born. They share a common board, but not a common bed. In the flesh as they are, they do not live according to the flesh. They dwell on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the laws that men make but their lives are better than the laws. They love all men but are persecuted by all. They are unknown and yet they are condemned. They are put to death, yet are more alive than ever. They are paupers but they make many rich. They lack all things and yet in all things they abound.
This passage is a beautiful example of dialectic, even if nothing else. The concluding lines specifically but also the tone of the whole make it plain that the style of these Christians was a simple one and that their lives obviously were not centred upon material values. So much was this the case that Christians actually were persecuted and killed in consequences.
Nonconformity is not valued as an end in itself. The one end is loyalty to Jesus Christ and through him, to the kingdom of God.
Now, when the Christian out of his loyalty to Jesus does perform in a way that amounts to a rejection of the world’s way it is quite possible for the world to see this as an expose’ of its own evil and consequently be moved to a change of heart and a way of life. That’s the Christian impact on society for good.
So true Christians should paradoxically live in the world but should not be part of it. The gospel of John’s high-priestly prayer for his disciplines states:
“These things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves, I have given them word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world, I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth". John 17:13-17.
If at any time it was necessary to be “In But Not Of The World” it is this week as we observe the ultimate period leading to the death of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Solemnity does not mean dancing and partying. It means seriousness and meditation on things eternal.
(C) Politico 17/04/14
